


Coney Island

by Heliocat



Category: Banana Fish (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Carnival, Coney Island, Guns, M/M, Prizes, Shooting, Shooting Guns, Shooting Range, Stuffed Toys, Teenagers, air rifle, carnival game, sharpshooter, theme park
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:02:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26274559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heliocat/pseuds/Heliocat
Summary: Ash scares the owner of a rigged carnival game, winning a prize for Eiji. Enough said.Short, cute fic.
Relationships: Ash Lynx/Okumura Eiji
Comments: 24
Kudos: 154





	Coney Island

**Author's Note:**

> Lately, I've written a lot of serious or depressive stuff, so this made me smile. Just a quick little read for you all :)
> 
> I'm English, so British English has been used for spelling and grammar.
> 
> Many thanks to Akimi Yoshida for creating Banana Fish - this is a work of fanfiction, so I own none of the intellectual property.

Cain had sourced some valuable information of a sensitive nature, information Ash had asked him to collect, and they agreed to the drop being made at Astroland in Coney Island. The theme park was usually busy, plus nobody would suspect kids meeting there of conducting dubiously legal business. They arranged for an early afternoon meeting, one of Cain’s representatives covertly passing information onto Ash through his boys at their hideout (although he could have picked a better member to tell than Bones; as lovable and loyal as he was, he had loose lips and a tendency to blab). Thus, Ash found himself mooching around a theme park, trying to blend in with the normal teenagers.

Having Eiji with him helped; for all intents and purposes, he was a ‘normal’ teenager, at least compared to Ash. His innocence and childishness would work in their favour, masking the intensity and maturity Ash usually carried everywhere marking him as suspicious. If he mirrored Eiji’s body language, he wouldn’t look so much like a murderous gang boss. He dressed smart and tried to mimic Eiji’s carefree strut, the way his hands hung relaxed at his sides, the little bounce in his step… if you paid really close attention you could even see the very slight limp he had, favouring one side over the other due to past injury, but Ash figured it was only Blanca’s intense training that allowed him to notice this.

 _‘Focus on their weaknesses,_ ’ the Russian had drilled into him. _‘Everyone had a weakness… use those sharp eyes and mind of yours to find it.’_

He hadn’t intended to take Eiji with him. Generally, he tried to keep him holed up and safe in their apartment under watch, but he had been moaning about being bored and going stir crazy. Stuck in the same building all day long with nothing to do but housework and reading the same books and comics over and over, he was becoming restless and irritable. There are only so many times in the day you can vacuum a carpet! When his attitude finally annoyed Ash to the point of breaking, he figured it wouldn’t hurt to take him along if they were careful and stuck to places with a lot of people. The subway was safe enough, and Coney Island was always a hive of activity. Plus, he was under his personal protection; very few people of interest would even dare approach him. He insisted it wasn’t a leisure trip, but Eiji managed to twist his arm in the way only he could and he agreed to them going on a couple of rides and grabbing some street food en-route.

Somewhat reluctantly, Ash dragged Eiji along before he forced him into a dodgem car, instead leading him past several stalls with carnival games and tacky prizes. Eiji gasped something that sounded like ‘car why’ and pointed to a stuffed toy hanging by a peg on its ear as a prize in one of the games. It was a panda holding a piece of plush bamboo. A quick glance and Ash saw it was a shooting parlour; knock a can off a shelf with an air rifle and win a prize.

“It so cute!” Eiji said. “With bamboo – cute!”

“Yeah… Yeah, it’s kinda cute,” Ash agreed. Eiji had a thing for stuffed animals. Ash sometimes questioned his masculinity, but a happy Eiji was an adorable Eiji, and seeing him smile excitedly gave him a strange, warm fuzzy feeling inside.

The stallholder saw them taking an interest and called out to them both.

“Whaddaya say, kid? You wanna try and win big?” he beckoned them over with a slimy grin, gesturing with his hands. “Shoot down a can – grab a prize!”

“Nah… Thanks anyway,” Ash declined. He turned and walked away, Eiji trailing after him.

“Shame, I think you be good at it,” Eiji told him. He was smiling, but Ash could see the disappointment on his face.

“I think me doing anything with a gun is unfair to the stallholder,” Ash muttered at him.

“You pay same as everyone else,” Eiji shrugged. “You not only sharpshooter in New York. I bet others use skill to advantage.”

“…You want the panda, don’t you?”

“I want panda.”

Ash sighed, shaking his head. “Alright, I’ll do it for you. But after this, we meet Cain, and we go home!”

Eiji hummed happily, turned them both around and pushed him back towards the stall.

“Changed ya mind, kid?” the stallholder asked, a knowing glint in his eye.

“One shot,” Ash told him, slapping a dollar on the counter. “It’s all I need.”

“Cocky one, ain’t ya,” the stallholder said. “We’ll soon see. One shot!” He pushed over a small plastic dish with one air pellet inside. “Lemme show you how to lo- oh.”

Ash had examined the rifle chained to the counter briefly, turning it in his hands a couple of times, and had then expertly pulled down the barrel and loaded the pellet inside before clicking it back into place.

“He good with gun,” Eiji explained to the stallholder.

“So I see…” said the stallholder, with a slight frown.

“Spring-powered air rifle,” Ash muttered. “Not exactly rocket science.”

He raised the rifle, the butt resting lightly against his shoulder and cheek, and glared down the sights at the can. At this range, it would be just as easy him reaching over and simply slapping the thing off the shelf… it should be impossible to miss. He aimed, exhaled, gently pressed the trigger… and missed.

“What?!”

“Bad luck, kid!” the stallholder said with mock sympathy. “You were so close!”

“What the shit? This thing is fucking rigged!”

“Everyone says that, but I can assure you my rifle sights are as kosher as the food at Kat’s!”

“That’s a fucking lie!” Ash growled dangerously.

“You accusing me of being a liar?”

“I ain’t calling you a truther!”

“Ash, let us just go, OK?” Eiji tried to defuse the situation, but failed miserably. “Please?”

“I think someone is just having a little tantrum because he ain’t as great a shot as he thinks he is,” the stallholder gloated.

That did it. Eiji sensed the tension reach a head and boil over as Ash snapped. He stopped arguing, a deadly calm descending. Whenever he became sangfroid like that it meant trouble was on its way. He reached under his coat to the waistband of his jeans…

“Ash, do not…” Eiji warned him.

“I’m getting you that fucking panda.” Ash’s voice was dangerously quiet. He pulled out his pistol.

“Woah Jesus!” the stallholder’s eyes went wide with sudden panic, the puce colouring in his face paling. He moved away from Ash, backpedalling wildly.

Ash barely even aimed. He raised his arm, cocking the pistol as he did so, fired a single round, and put the gun back into his waistband quicker than most people blink. The can flew off the shelf, a perfect hole punched through the exact dead centre of it. The stallholder stared at it with a mixture of fear and awe.

“THAT’S how I know it’s fucking rigged!” he spat at the terrified stallholder.

Shaking, the stallholder unhooked the panda from the prize wall and handed it over.

“J…just take it, kid,” he stuttered nervously.

“Thank you,” Ash said with a cocky smirk, accepting the toy. He palmed it off onto Eiji. “Here you go!”

“You no have to go that far, Ash,” Eiji chided him. “But, must admit… you pretty cool.”

“I just can’t stand filthy cheats,” Ash replied. “C’mon… Cain’ll be wondering what’s keeping us.”

The meeting with Cain was brief, the black leader handing over the folder of important paperwork and Ash tucking it under his jacket. He gave Eiji a confused look, seeing him holding a large panda with a serene smile, but then shrugged. Who was he to question why the Japanese kid was there and for what purpose he had a stuffed animal. Ash was mysterious and had his reasons; judging by the mood the Lynx was in that afternoon, this seemed like one of those occasions it was best not knowing.

**Author's Note:**

> Me to my car when it breaks down: "Car why?"  
> My car, a Honda Civic, blushing like a tsundere: "B...Baka!"


End file.
